WWE 205 Live – February 28th, 2017

Tonight on 205 Live, Adrian Neville delivers the Fastlane address! I bet he calls himself the King a bunch of times! Also, wrestling! Maybe!

Let’s watch some wrestling, shall we?

WWE 205 Live – 2/28/17

Video from Raw last night recaps the tag match where Jack Gallagher got the pin. Will he win on Sunday? (I’m guessing no.)

Let’s go to the back, where Jack Gallagher has a few words for us! What is he expecting from Neville’s address tonight? “What am I expecting, Mr. Phillips?” He’s expecting Neville to come out and insult the entire WWE Universe! He expects Neville to sit on his throne and talk about obliterating all of his challengers up to this point. He’s expecting Neville to talk about how his reign will never end, but this Sunday, with the Cruiserweight championship being contested between a King and a Gentleman…..well, maybe the result won’t be what Neville is expecting!

We are LIVE from the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota! Your hosts are Mauro Ranallo, Austin Aries, & Corey Graves.

And we’re starting with the music of Noam Dar! He’s out with the one and only Alicia Foooooxxxxxx. He’ll be in action this Sunday on the preshow, as he’ll team with “The” Brian Kendrick to take on Rich Swann and Akira Tozawa! And there’s the music of his opponent, Lince Dorado! The Golden Lynx makes his way to the ring to face off against Dar.

Lince Dorado vs Noam Dar (w/ Alicia Fooooxxxxx)

Handshake is accepted. They circle and look to lock up…..but a delivery man has come to ringside with bouquets of flowers? My word, who could those be for? Dar is distracted and Dorado takes the opportunity to roll Noam up for two before hitting a spinning heel kick. But forget the in-ring action, because we find out that the mystery flowers are for Alicia! ALICIA FOX IS THE STAR OF THIS SHOW. We head back to the ring after being reminded of that as Dorado hits a crossbody off the top for two. Forearms from Dorado, chop from Dorado, Irish whip is reversed by Dar, Dorado off the middle rope with a moonsault! 1, 2, no! Lince charges Noam in the corner, Dar alley-oops him to the apron, Dar with a right hand, Dorado ducks a clothesline from Noam, but Dar comes back with a kick that drops Dorado to the apron. Back in and Dar covers for one. Hey, how is Alicia doing with those flowers? WE WANT TO KNOW. And apparently, she’s……eating them. Okey-dokey. Back to the ring now, and Dar chokes Lince in the corner with his boot. Noam snaps the arm of Lince across the shoulder, applying a wristlock on the mat before dropping an elbow on said arm and then ramming Dorado into the buckles. Dar applies the chinlock as see that Rich Swann is watching on a monitor backstage, because he doesn’t want his rematch for the title; he wants him some Alicia! Like everyone on this show does! Lince fights up and breaks the chinlock with a jawbreaker, tilt-a-whirl backbreaker by Dorado! Alicia is tossing her flowers to the crowd as they chant “We want flowers!”; maybe I’m being too hard in mocking Alicia here, she IS getting an actual reaction. Dorado snaps off a ‘rana back in the ring, avoids shots from Noam, and takes him over with a belly-to-belly throw. Irish whip, reversed by Dar, Dorado with a handspring off the ropes, Stunner (Lethal Stunner? Stone Cole Injection?) to Noam! 1, 2, NO! Lince goes up, Dar charges, Dorado over the top with a somersault, he turns around, Dar wipes him out with a kick to the shin! Dar sets up, jumping enzuigiri hits! 1, 2, 3! (Noam Dar over Lince Dorado, pinfall, 3:59)

WORTH WATCHING? – It had the biggest star on 205 Live, Alicia Fox! What’s worse is, I’m not at all sure that the sentence I just typed is actually sarcasm! Either way, the match was a big fat sack of nothin’ so NO, I would skip. 4 minutes with no story outside of Dar being distracted but winning anyway to make Dorado look like a chump after Lince dominated most of the match body. Skip with extreme prejudice.

Post-match, Dar gets the mic. “My gift of these beautiful and sweet flowers cannot compare to the sweetness and the beauty of Alicia Fooooooooxxxx!” They leave the ring and in a pretty funny bit, Alicia gives a flower to a guy and ringside and Dar snatches it away.

Ad for Fastlane. C’mon, keep the title on Owens. You know you want to, WWE.

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We’re back with Austin Aries in the ring. “Ladies and Gentlemen, at this time, help me welcome, from Kobe, Japan; he’s energetic, he’s hard-hitting, and he’s fearless, Akira Tozawa!” Akira, you just recently made your debut here on 205 Live, but it’s kind of been a rocky start – let’s take a look why! We go to the tron, where we see some history between Akira and Brian Kendrick, as Brian asks Tozawa to be his protege, and Akira tells Brian that he doesn’t like him. Aries wants to know, even with Kendrick being shady by Austin’s standards, why did Akira turn down such a generous offer? Well, Tozawa says, he respects Kendrick, but he wants to make it on his own! Well, Aries says, unfortunately, Kendrick feels that he’s been disrespected, and now he’s going to teach Akira a number of lessons. Let’s take a look at a few of those! After seeing said ‘lessons’, Aries asks Tozawa what he plans to do about it. Akira: “I want to fight!” He wants to fight right now! He starts his chants, his battle cry according to Corey Graves. Props to the twosome who brought a double sign that just says ‘Sign’ by the way.

And there’s the music of Brian Kendrick! He makes his way out with a mic of his own. “Tozawa! Look at his, question and answer time!” It’s perfect, because Kendrick has a couple of questions to ask of his own! What makes Akira think that Kendrick is going to fight on Tozawa’s terms? Well, he’ll answer for Akira – it’s because Tozawa doesn’t know who he’s dealing with! Kendrick is a former champion for a reason! He’s a man with a plan, and he fights when he says he fights! Question number two; what makes Akira think he can succeed in the WWE without Kendrick’s help? He’ll answer that one, too: it’s because Akira is a brat! A selfish brat! He turned down a golden opportunity! What makes him think that Brian is going to fight him right now? What makes him think that? What makes him think that he can get away with insulting Kendrick? Turning down a man who could have made him a champion? What makes him think that Kendrick is going to forget that type of insult? Akira says that he won’t fail! But Kendrick has to cut him off right there; if Tozawa wants to talk to Brian, he has to learn English first! You wanna fight now, Tozawa? Well, the answer is no! And with that, Kendrick stalks off to the back.

Better than before, with a decent promo by Kendrick. I still don’t want the feud to continue and I don’t want to see Akira wasting his time with it. But I will acknowledge that Kendrick did okay here as the slimeball his character is, so I’ll live.

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We’re back with the music of the Premier athlete, Tony Nese, as Mauro tells us that we’re getting set for six-man tag action! His partners look to be Drew Gulak and Ariya Daivari, who gets a nice face pop from his hometown. And there’s the music of TJ Perkins! The former CW champ makes his way out, and he’s soon followed by his teammates, Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander!

Handshakes are accepted all around…..except for Perkins, who refuses the outstretched hand of Daivari. God, just turn him heel already. Ali and Nese start us off. Lockup, and Tony tosses Ali down off a waistlock. Lockup goes to a neutral corner this time, cross-corner whip by Tony, Ali over the top of a charging Nese, Ali does a backflip and then catches Tony with an armdrag. Mustafa controls with a wristlock and tags in Cedric, who comes in with an elbow on Nese’s arm. Alexander winds up the arm a few times, tag to TJ who comes in off the top onto Tony’s arm. TJ takes Nese to the mat and wraps up the good arm, then snaps the bad one back while falling to the mat. TJ winds up the arm again, tag to Ali, who takes over the wristlock and uses it to snapmare Nese over, following that by splashing the arm on the mat. Ali continues to control with the wristlock, tag back to TJ.

Perkins snaps the arm across the shoulder, then sends Nese to the corner with a spinning back kick. Cross-corner whip is reversed by Tony, Perkins attempts to go over the top, but Nese didn’t charge and sends Perkins face first to the buckle now. Kick attempt by Nese is blocked and Perkins floats over into a cross-armbreaker, Daivari comes in off the ropes with a kneedrop to break it up, but TJ moves and Ariya hits the mat. Perkins tosses him to the floor and Cedric adds a kick to the head from the apron, causing Gulak to come in and clobber Alexander to the floor. Perkins tosses Gulak out over the top rope now, and Ali decides to come off the second rope with a twisting crossbody onto Gulak and Daivari. Perkins wants to join in the fun, but comes off the ropes and gets tripped by Nese, who pulls him out to the floor on the opposite side and sends him to the apron, then to the announce table. He tosses TJ back in and smacks him across the face with a forearm, and it’s a tag to Daivari.

Daivari hits a neckbreaker on TJ for two, Irish whip and he knocks TJ down with a back elbow for 1. Tag to Drew, who comes off the ropes with a shot to the ribs of Perkins. Gulak hoists Perkins up in a Gory special now, shifting from the arms into a chinlock before walking to the corner and tagging Daivari back in. Another shot to the ribs and he sends TJ off the ropes, but ducks his head and TJ fires a kick to said head. Perkins runs for the corner, but Ariya catches his arm and turns him around into a hammerlock clothesline. 1, 2, NO! Knee to the back of Perkins, and Daivari applies a surfboard now. TJ fights back up and hits Ariya with a mule kick, Daivari tags in Gulak, TJ with the tag to Ali! Mustafa in with clotheslines, whip to the corner is reversed by Drew, Ali goes to the apron to avoid a charging Gulak and hits him with a kick from there.

Ali somersaults in through the middle rope with a neckbreaker, and goes up for the reverse 450, Daivari tries to cut it off but gets sent to the floor with a dropkick from Ali. Mustafa goes up again, but Gulak is recovered and brings Ali down into a torture rack, then slams him off that. 1, 2, Cedric saves it! Daivari comes in and they run the ropes, big kneelift from Daivari drops Alexander. Perkins back in and he sends Daivari through the middle rope to the outside, then hits an in and out dropkick off the ropes. Nese goes to the apron and cartwheels to the floor, then hits a nasty-looking superkick to TJ. Tony goes to help Daivari up, but they look up to see Cedric flying out of the ring with a tope con hilo that takes both guys out. We’re left with Gulak and Ali in the ring, and Gulak charges right into a back elbow from Ali in the corner, Mustafa follows that with a springboard tornado DDT! Ali sets Gulak up and goes to the top, Inverted 450!!! Man, I love to watch that move. 1, 2, Daivari puts Drew’s foot on the bottom rope! Mustafa is displeased and goes after Daivari, leaving him wide open for Tony to come in from behind and hit the German suplex into the buckles!

Gulak crawls for the tag and finally makes it, tagging in Nese. Tony goes over to Ali, who dives halfway across the ring to tag in Perkins! That was cool. TJ slides in through the feet of Tony, Fireman’s carry by TJ, Detonation kick by TJ! 1, 2, Daivari makes the save! Alexander no-likey, and he comes flying in with a clothesline on Daivari! The ref goes to escort Cedric out as TJ goes up, allowing Gulak to crotch TJ on the top; Nese takes advantage, coming off the ropes (elbowing Cedric off the apron in the process) and hits the running knee on TJ in the corner, and that’ll do it here. (Tony Nese, Drew Gulak, & Ariya Daivari over TJ Perkins, Cedric Alexander, & Mustafa Ali, pinfall, 10:16)

WORTH WATCHING? – This was pretty good, actually. YES, I would check this out. They did a good job here in telling little stories, with the faces working over the arm of Nese in the beginning; yeah, it didn’t factor in the finish, but he was able to get out of the match for a good chunk of time to shake it out. I also liked that Ali hit his finish to pop the crowd and they didn’t have Gulak kick out, along with using some good tropes of the tag formula to have the heels cheat whenever possible and have the faces hit most of the big dives and moves. Nese gets a win back from last week, and he remains pretty protected, as you could argue last week that he only lost because Neville hung him out to dry. Tony and Ali clearly stood out in this match, and that’s fine because they’re the guys to push. I liked this quite a bit; they did a lot with the time they got here.

Post-match, we check out the replays as the winners celebrate on the ramp. Graves reminds us that Talking Smack will have American Alpha, Natalya, & AJ Styles! Aries tells us that now, we’ll see something great!

And it’s the video package of Aries again, with new footage AND they spell his name! Yeah!

We’re back to some pyro, as Neville is making his entrance! The Cruiserweight champion makes his way out, glaring at everyone as usual. Ah, good times. Champ, what’s on your mind? “It appears, before Fastlane this Sunday, all of you are in need of a history lesson.” You see, 205 Live was created to showcase the best cruiserweights on planet Earth, but you all forgot about the greatest on Earth, Neville! So what happened next? Chaos and mediocrity ensued until Neville arrived! He singlehandedly changed the landscape of 205 Live, but he received nothing but resentment! He saved 205 Live, but you people show him no gratitude! You’d rather cheer for a sideshow act like Jack Gallagher! You are to blame for Jack Gallagher thinking that he’s on Neville’s level! So it’s your fault as to Jack Gallagher’s fate. This Sunday, Neville is going to obliterate little Jack; we’re going to have a public execution!

Well, well, well – that’s the music of Jack Gallagher! He makes his way to the ring, William the umbrella in tow. Crowd chants for Jack, because he’s actually over. “Pardon the interruption, it is a little bit rude of me, but this has become a little less like a history lesson.” And Jack likes history lessons, but this is more like a meltdown! Would it make Neville feel better if Jack got some tea and biscuits for him? Crowd chants for tea and biscuits now. Neville: “I am warning you, Jack – I want to leave in one piece!” But if Jack keeps pushing him, he’ll destroy him tonight! This is Neville’s ring, so why doesn’t Gallagher see himself out? Jack says that he’s quite fond of being in one piece, but is he hearing correctly, that Neville believes this is his ring? Neville confirms this to be the case. Well, Jack says, that might be a source of disagreement. This ring has never been Neville’s; it belongs to all of these people! Jack takes off his coat; oh my, I think he may be serious. So, if Neville has a problem with what Jack is saying, his words, tone, inflection; well, maybe Neville should leave.

And now, Jack attacks! He double legs Neville down and fires fists, Neville gets back to his feet and hits a knee to Jack’s gut and slams him into the mat! Neville rips off Jack’s shirt and stomps away, spinning back kick by Neville! He comes off the ropes, right into a dropkick by Gallagher! Another! Jack with the big headbutt to stagger both guys! Neville bails to the floor, but Gallagher isn’t done and he chases, hitting the running dropkick to send Neville over the barricade! Gallagher stands tall in the ring as Neville slouches against the production area, and we’re done for the week with 205 Live.

FINAL THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: A little less than 15 minutes of actual ring time this week, most of the show was promos and setups for the future, and I’m lukewarm on the prospects. On the one hand, I’m glad they’re trying to flesh these guys out, but I’m not all that wild on the choices they’ve made when it comes to the feuds they’re pushing. Gallagher/Neville should be pretty decent, but I fully expect Neville to be holding the title up at the end of the match. As for the wrestling, the first match was junk and the six-man was good, so watch that and you can comfortably skip most of the rest.